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<title>Acknowledgements &middot; Game Programming Patterns</title>

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<h1>Acknowledge&shy;ments</h1>
<h1 class="book"><a href="/">Game Programming Patterns</a></h1>
<p>I&#8217;ve heard only other authors know what&#8217;s involved in writing a book, but there
is another tribe who know the precise weight of that burden&#8202;&mdash;&#8202;those with the
misfortune of being in a relationship with a writer. I wrote this in a space of
time painstakingly carved from the dense rock of life for me by my wife Megan.
Washing dishes and giving the kids baths may not be &#8220;writing&#8221;, but without her
doing those, this book wouldn&#8217;t be here.</p>
<p>I started this project while a programmer at Electronic Arts. I don&#8217;t think the
company knew quite what to make of it, and I&#8217;m grateful to Michael Malone,
Olivier Nallet, and Richard Wifall for supporting it and providing detailed,
insightful feedback on the first few chapters.</p>
<p><span name="editor">About</span> halfway through writing, I decided to forgo a traditional publisher. I
knew that meant losing the guidance an editor brings, but I had email from
dozens of readers telling me where they wanted the book to go. I&#8217;d lose
proofreaders, but I had over <span name="colm">250 bug reports</span> to help improve the prose. I&#8217;d give
up the incentive of a writing schedule, but with readers patting my back when I
finished each chapter, I had more than enough motivation.</p>
<aside name="editor">
<p>What I didn&#8217;t lose was a copy editor. Lauren Briese showed up just when I
needed her and did a wonderful job.</p>
</aside>
<p>They call this &#8220;self publishing&#8221;, but &#8220;crowd publishing&#8221; is closer to the mark.
Writing can be lonely work, but I was never alone. Even when I put the book on a
shelf for two years, the encouragement continued. Without the dozens of people
who didn&#8217;t let me forget that they were waiting for more chapters, I never would
have picked it back up and finished.</p>
<aside name="colm">
<p>Special thanks go to Colm Sloan who pored over every single chapter in the book
<em>twice</em> and gave me mountains of fantastic feedback, all out of the goodness of
his own heart. I owe you a beer or twenty.</p>
</aside>
<p>To everyone who emailed or commented, upvoted or favorited, tweeted or
retweeted, anyone who reached out to me, or told a friend about the book, or
sent me a bug report: my heart is filled with gratitude for you. Completing this
book was one of my biggest goals in life, and you made it happen.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
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